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From 1187 to 2219 in just three years

by Jitendra Choudhary - 06/01/2017

Some kids are able to excel at just about everything they do. Prithu Gupta is one such student. At the age of just 12 years he is able to speak Spanish fluently. He is academically bright, maintains a CGPA of 10. But the most astonishing part about this Delhi boy's story is the massive 1032 Elo point gain from 1187 to 2219 in just three years. Jitendra Choudhary sent us a brief portrait about this future star of Delhi. 

12-year-old Prithu Gupta from Delhi rated 2219

Future chess star from Delhi, Prithu Gupta, started as a beginner in early 2014 with a rating of 1187. His immense passion for chess made him increase his rating to 2219 by September 2016 in the few tournaments that he played. Most of them were in his home town Delhi.

Prithu's rating graph: From 1187 to 2219 in just three years!

His performances have helped him attain a world ranking of 13 and Asia ranking of 7 in the under-12 category. A student of the Modern School, Vasant Vihar, Delhi, Prithu is a perfect example of a child who has maintained a perfect CGPA 10 in academics along with pursuing his passion of chess at a very high level. In an era where kids barely attend school to pursue chess seriously, this boy has been a state champion in UCMAS Abacus thrice, won many Mathematics competitions and managed to top his batch in academics.

Flanked by two slawarts of Delhi chess - Gopakumar Sudhakaran and A.K. Verma. Prithu is holding the Delhi state trophies for 1st runner's up at under-13 and under-15 and 2nd runner's up in the Amateur section.

He played the ACP world series tournaments in Pardubice, Dresden and Riga in July - August 2016. His rating performance in Pardubice until the seventh round was around 2450 but reduced to 2285 when the tournament ended. However, it's worth mentioning that with a rating of 1981 he was in the last ten players in the starting rank list of 285 participants. In Dresden, he missed the first round and had a rating performance of 2162 and in Riga his rating performance was 2257.

Prithu's parents Poonam and Mohit have been very supportive towards his chess career
Here is one game of Prithu which shows you that he has a good feel for chess dynamics. He faltered in conversion of an advantage, but the first half of the game was quite impressive.
[Event "IND-ch U13 29th"]
[Site "Gurgaon"]
[Date "2015.09.07"]
[Round "11"]
[White "Kushagra, Mohan"]
[Black "Prithu, Gupta"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B42"]
[WhiteElo "1946"]
[BlackElo "1788"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "225"]
[EventDate "2015.08.30"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "11"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceTitle "EXT 2016"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2015.10.08"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. O-O Qc7 7. Qe2 d6 8. c4
g6 {Once white plays c4, it's fine to play g6 and develop the bishop to g7.} 9.
Nc3 Bg7 10. Nb3 $6 {The knight is misplaced here.} (10. Rd1 {is one of the
main moves.}) (10. Nf3 {The knight is better placed here.}) 10... Nc6 11. f4
O-O 12. Be3 Nd7 13. Rac1 Re8 $5 14. a3 (14. Nd5 exd5 15. cxd5 {This is usually
a good position for White, but Prithu's Re8 comes to good use.} Nf6 16. dxc6
Nxe4 17. cxb7 Qxb7 $15) 14... b6 15. Qf2 (15. Nd5 Qb8 $11) 15... Nc5 16. Bc2
Bb7 17. Nd2 Rab8 18. Bb1 Qe7 (18... a5 $5) 19. b4 Nd7 20. Bd3 $6 (20. Nf3 $14)
(20. Bxb6 $2 Nxb6 21. Qxb6 Bd4+ $19) 20... Ba8 (20... a5 $1 21. b5 Nc5 $1 22.
Bb1 Na7 $11) 21. Na4 $6 {White leaves the control of the centre and Prithu is
quick to capitalize.} d5 $1 22. cxd5 exd5 23. e5 d4 $1 {I like this move which
shows a deep understanding of what's going on. Black is fine to give up a pawn
if he can get the dark squared bishop.} (23... Ndxe5 $1 {was also strong.} 24.
fxe5 Nxe5 25. Be2 Nc6 26. Nxb6 Qxe3 27. Qxe3 Rxe3 28. Nxa8 Rxe2 29. Rxc6 Rxd2
$17) 24. Bxd4 Red8 $5 {With all these pieces lined down the d-file White is in
trouble.} (24... Nxd4 $1 25. Qxd4 Nxe5 26. fxe5 Rbd8 $1 27. Qe3 Bxe5 28. Qh3
Qg5 $19 {Wins back the piece.}) 25. Bb2 Ndxe5 26. Be2 $2 (26. fxe5 Rxd3 27. e6
$1 Qxe6 28. Bxg7 Kxg7 29. Nc4 $11 {The position is round about even.}) 26...
Rxd2 $1 27. fxe5 Bxe5 (27... Nxe5 {Would have left White badly pinned.} 28.
Rfe1 Re8 29. Qg3 Bc6 $19) 28. Bxe5 Nxe5 {This is still winning for Black.} 29.
Kh1 Ng4 30. Qg3 Bxg2+ $1 31. Kg1 {Black is now two pawns up.} (31. Qxg2 Qxe2
32. Qxe2 Rxe2 $19) 31... Qe3+ $6 {This queen exchange was not called for.} (
31... Rxe2 $1 32. Qxb8+ Kg7 {Qe3 is terminal.} 33. Qg3 Bxf1 34. Rxf1 Qe4 $19)
32. Qxe3 Nxe3 33. Rf2 b5 34. Nc5 Bb7 (34... Rbd8 $19) 35. Rc3 Rd1+ $5 (35...
Nd1 36. Bxd1 Rxd1+ 37. Rf1 Rd6 $19) 36. Bxd1 Nxd1 37. Rd3 Nxf2 38. Kxf2 Kg7 39.
Rd6 Bc8 40. Rd8 Ra8 41. Ke3 {Black is two pawns up, but very difficult to
break free.} h5 42. Kf4 Kf6 43. Rd6+ Ke7 (43... Be6 $17) 44. Ke5 Ra7 45. Rc6
Bd7 46. Rb6 a5 $2 (46... Bg4 $17) 47. bxa5 Rxa5 48. Rb7 {Black loses a piece
and although he has realistic drawing chances, the game eded in a win for
White.} Rxa3 49. Rxd7+ Ke8 50. Rb7 Kf8 51. Rxb5 Ra2 52. h4 Re2+ 53. Kf4 Rf2+
54. Kg3 Ra2 55. Nd7+ Ke7 56. Ne5 Ra3+ 57. Nf3 Ra4 58. Rb7+ Kf8 59. Ne5 Ra3+ 60.
Kf4 Ra4+ 61. Kg5 Ra5 62. Kf4 Ra4+ 63. Kg3 Ra3+ 64. Nf3 Ra4 65. Rd7 Rg4+ 66. Kf2
Ra4 67. Ke3 Rb4 68. Rd2 Rg4 69. Rd7 f6 70. Rd5 Kf7 71. Ra5 Rb4 72. Nd4 Rb7 73.
Ra6 Re7+ 74. Kf4 Rc7 75. Ra4 Rd7 76. Rb4 Rc7 77. Nb5 Rc5 78. Nd6+ Ke6 79. Ne4
Rf5+ 80. Kg3 g5 81. Rb6+ Ke5 82. Nd2 gxh4+ 83. Kxh4 Rf4+ 84. Kxh5 Ra4 85. Nf3+
Ke4 86. Rxf6 Ke3 87. Nh4 Re4 88. Rf3+ Kd4 89. Kg5 Kc5 90. Nf5 Kd5 91. Kf6 Kc5
92. Rc3+ Rc4 93. Re3 Kb4 94. Ke5 Rc5+ 95. Ke4 Rc4+ 96. Kd5 Rc5+ 97. Ke6 Rc6+
98. Nd6 Kc5 99. Rc3+ Kb6 100. Rb3+ Kc5 101. Rb5+ Kd4 102. Rd5+ Ke3 103. Ke5 Rc1
104. Nf5+ Kf3 105. Rd3+ Ke2 106. Ke4 Rc4+ 107. Nd4+ Kf2 108. Kf4 Kg2 109. Rd2+
Kh3 110. Kg5 Rc5+ 111. Nf5 Rc4 112. Rd3+ Kg2 113. Ne3+ 1-0

Prithu is currently trained by GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury and IM Somak Palit. Under the tutelage of such experienced trainers he is sure to blossom even further. The young boy speaks fluently in 3 languages: English, Spanish and Hindi and knows a little bit of Bengali too. All of this is quite some achievement for a boy who is just 12 years old!


About the author

Jitendra Choudhary is a chess trainer in Delhi. He is from Madhya Pradesh, but shifted to Delhi to pursue his passion related to chess. He currently teaches students, works as an arbiter and would like to dedicate more time to being a chess journalist.